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DATE=10-9-2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CLINTON-MIDEAST (L)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE

INTRO: President Clinton is continuing telephone diplomacy to try to end the Middle East crisis. Aides say he has offered to take part in an emergency summit in the region aimed at ending Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed and getting the parties back to negotiations. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White House.

TEXT: A grim-faced Mr. Clinton would not respond to shouted questions about the Middle East as he returned here at mid-day from an overnight stay in New York. But administration officials say he is continuing to lead an around-the-clock U-S diplomatic effort to de-fuse the crisis.

The President has had multiple telephone conversations since late last week with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Clinton also placed a call Sunday to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to appeal for dialogue and restraint.

Administration officials say Mr. Clinton is offering to do anything necessary to rescue a peace process in which he has invested years of effort, including going to the region to convene an emergency summit.

The New York Times reported the President had asked Egypt's President Mubarak to convene such a gathering as early as the middle of this week. In an A-B-C network television interview, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declined to give details of the initiative, but said Mr. Clinton's presence in the region might be the key to ending the wave of violence.

///ALBRIGHT ACT ONE///

Well, President Clinton has played a unique role in the Middle East generally and has spent a lot of time on the details of the peace process, and has excellent relations with all those involved. And the question is, what can be done now to change the dynamics.

///END ACT///

Ms. Albright brought Prime Minister Barak and Mr. Arafat together in Paris last week but their pledges to contain the violence failed to take hold. She told her A-B-C interviewers she drew some encouragement from the fact that there continues to be working- level contact between security officials of the two sides.

/// ALBRIGHT ACT 2 ///

We have been talking about the necessity of disengaging, and trying to use every kind of measure to get the security forces talking to each other, and they have been, and we are hoping very much that they will be able to defuse this in some way.

///END ACT///

Clinton aides said the President wanted to see an easing of the disorders before he would commit to a summit trip to the region, and that a decision on such an initiative was unlikely before Tuesday.

They said they were encouraged by U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan's talks in the region, and the fact that unrest Monday was less widespread than that of recent days despite the heavy clashes between Palestinian crowds and Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Ramallah. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/KBK